In Fish Stripes' continued attempt to remind people of the past of the Florida Marlins along with the present and future of the Miami Marlins, we bring you a new feature published three or so times a week entitled This Day In Marlins History! The concept itself is very simple: whenever we publish this, we find an interesting fact or tidbit related to the Florida / Miami Marlins and write a little bit about that event.
On this day, July 5, 1991, the Florida Marlins became an official member of the National League.
The history of the Marlins begins in 1990, when the team's first owner, Blockbuster CEO and now generally-despised businessman Wayne Huizenga bought into the south Florida sports business by purchasing parts of the Miami Dolphins and Joe Robbie Stadium. He pursued the chance to start a baseball franchise in south Florida as well, and in June 10, 1991, a future Florida baseball franchise was approved. Huizenga's group beat out a group from Orlando and Tampa Bay; of course, just four years later, Tampa would get its own franchise in the then-Devil Rays.
Apparently, once you fight your way into getting a baseball team, it does not take very long for you to get set up. Less than a month later, on July 5, 1991, baseball owners unanimously approved the (as of then unnamed) Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies and introduced them into the National League by 1993.
A flurry of other things happened after that in 1991, and by the end of that year, the Marlins had their first manager, first minor league affiliate, and first player in amateur free agent signing Clemente Nunez. But it all began in the summer of 1991, with a fresh start from an owner looking to establish himself in the south Florida market. On this day in 1991, the unnamed Florida franchise that would become the Marlins was officially born into the National League!